LOS ANGELES — The women’s basketball universe coalesced in Los Angeles this weekend, with No. 3 USC and No. 4 UCLA hosting top-six opponents on back-to-back days heading into Thanksgiving.
But in the first of the two potential Final Four previews, the visiting No. 6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish played spoiler to a crowd of 7,894 at Galen Center, defeating the Trojans 74-61 to hand USC its first loss of the season.
The Irish led wire to wire and had USC fans heading for the exits with 4:48 left after using a 16-2 run at the start of the fourth to jump ahead 21.
It was Notre Dame’s first…